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Monday, November 30, 2009

ロボットふぁーめん (Robot Ramen in Nagoya)

ふぁーめん

Riding Japan's amazing bullet train out of Tokyo is always a fun (and expensive) adventure. This time the destination was Nagoya.

The lively Akamon street in theOsu-Kannon area of Nagoya could be akin to Tokyo's Akihabara. This means nerdy. Toy shops, maid cafes, and robots. Is there any human task a robot can't do? Not in this country!

Yep, these are the infamous ramen robots. R2B1 is the manager, and R2B2 is the assistant manager. Working in harmony, they can get a bowl to you in less than 2 minutes. Together they make this:

It's a fairly normal tonkotsu pork soup. Nothing amazing, but you're not really here for an exceptional bowl of ramen, are you? On with the show!

Everything is automated, from placing the bowl, to pouring the soup, to shaking the noodles.

All to the whizz and whir or precision electronics.

During downtime they joke away with some typical manzai comedian jokes. Slapstick is essential. A quarrel over the fairer of the robot sexes leads to a knife battle.

Despite the huge number of people walking around this area, the shop was relatively quiet. No line, we walked right in and sat down.

It's only a couple stops from the central Nagoya station. But if you are in a rush, keep in mind that there is a ramen "street" right in the station for all your eating needs.

But when the robots attack (they eat old people's medicine for fuel), I'll feel good knowing I gave some love to the first robot ramen chefs on the planet.